Shang Dynasty and early Chinese state structure; diviners and oracle bones; religious function of kings (in lieu of shaman)
Wu Ding
Harappan city planning --> connection to social structure?
Challenges of interpreting and analyzing Harappan civilization?
Process of unification in ARVCs
Political functions of the Nile River; link to unification?
Challenges of Mesopotamian geography to unification?
Sargon of Akkad
Shang civilization --> link between its power and geography?
Mandate of Heaven --> diffusion of this concept?
Cuneiform/logograms
Blogging Prompts and Critical Questions
How did the development of agriculture intensify cultural differences? What examples are some of the most illustrative of this dynamic?
What challenges face historians and other scholars in attempting to study and characterize early human settlements?
How did horizontally organized societies operate differently from vertically organized societies? Which of these types existed most frequently among ancient river valley civilizations (ARVCs) and why did this tend to be the case?
Why does Armesto choose to focus on how historians have traditionally employed the concept of "civilization"? How does his attitude about this concept shape the way in which he addresses this period of human history?
What common patterns and connections are evident among early civilization?
What common patterns and connections are evident among the ARVCs? How does geography shape societal, political, and/or economic dynamics in similar ways in all of these ARVCs?
How did surplus and the development of job specialization change gender roles in ARVC cities?
How did political structures influence religious beliefs? What specific examples help illustrate the dynamic relationship between these factors?
How did ARVCs expand and acquire more territory and political influence? What similarities and differences exist in the processes that these civilizations undertook in their growth processes?
Compare and Contrast the role played by geography in the unification and political trajectories of the four ARVCs.
What role has the existence of writing played in historians' traditional interpretation and evaluation of the ARVCs?
Why does Armesto challenge this traditional interpretation of writing's role in ARVCs? What evidence does he draw on to challenge these traditional assumptions?
Chapter 4 (pp. 92-119): ID Terms and Important Concepts
Hittite Kingdom (P/S/E profile)
Military developments --> use of iron?
Economic surpluses
Political structure
Religious attitudes --> connection to sexual mores?
Gender roles and attitudes
Cretan (Minoan) Civilization (P/S/E profile)
Knossos/Zakros --> signif. as palace centers?
Mycenaean Civilization (P/S/E profile)
Egyptian Civilization in second millennium BCE (2000-1000 BCE)
Hyksos
Sea Peoples
Ramses III
Harappan Civilization (P/S/E profile and sources of decline)
Rig Veda
Shang Dynasty/state (changes ~1100 BCE?)
Zhou Dynasty/state (P/S/E profile)
Mandate of Heaven
Andean Civilizations (P/S/E profiles)
El Niño --> role in the civilizations' stability?
Chavín de Huantar --> cultural and artistic achievements?
Mesoamerican Civilizations (P/S/E profile)
Olmec Civilization --> sources of growth and expansion
Influence of Olmec Civ. on later Mesoamerican peoples?
Nubia --> relationship and connection to Egypt?
Blogging Prompts and Critical Questions
How does the Hittite Kingdom fit into the Conrad-Demarest model? Does it meet the criteria of an "Empire" according to Conrad and Demarest?
How do Minoan (Cretan) and Mycenaean Civilizations differ from the way in which they have been portrayed traditionally in Western Civilizations (Europe and the United States)?
How does Armesto revise the prior understanding and interpretation about the sources of instability throughout the Mediterranean during the second millennium BCE?
How does Armesto's emphasis on the central role of climatic changes reshape our understanding of the causes of decline amongst these second millennium civilizations?
How has the Zhou concept of the "Mandate of Heaven" shaped Chinese self-identity and the standard Western interpretation of Chinese culture?
How do the American civilizations (Andean and Mesoamerican) compare against the Old World civilizations in terms of their culture, economic bases, and instability during the second millennium BCE?
What common civilizational patterns defined the second millennium BCE throughout the globe?
What key argument(s) does Armesto make about the development of civilizations in this chapter? What purpose does he try to achieve through this argument? How will we understand the course of civilization's development as a result of his argument?
Find textual evidence that reveals Armesto's own voice clearly --> e.g. where does it seem like he is editorializing?
Chapter 5 (pp. 120-151): ID Terms and Important Concepts
Phoenicians
Byblos and Tyre
Geographical and environmental resources
Cultural contributions
Carthage/Carthaginians
Different writing systems --> advantages and effects of both?
Logographic
Phoenician
Assyrian Empire (P/S/E profile)
King Tiglath-pilaser III
key ideologies and values
King Ashurbanipal
Sammurat, Naqia --> reflection of gender role in Assyrian society?
Sennacherib
Babylon/Babylonians
Nabopolassar
Nebuchadnezzar II
Greek in early first millennium BCE (P/S/E profile) (elsewhere described as Greek Dark Ages)
Significance of olive oil
Centrality of the Mediterranean Sea and trade
Greek colonization and society
role of Greek religion in the colonization process?
culture of Greek colonies
Homer; The Iliad and The Odyssey
Greek society
ethne and poleis
early democracy (or the lack thereof)
Gender roles and hierarchy
Revisions re: Greek values and concept of Greek "purity"
Thracians
Horseback hero/god
Sitalkes
Illyrians and Garamantes
Etruscans
Caere
Gender roles and women's rights
Decline of Zhou Dynasty (causes?)
King Li
Xuan
Indian (South Asian) Culture
Ganges Valley
persistence of Harappan culture?
Upanishads
Hindu belief system --> Brahman; matter = illusion; cycle of reincarnation
Sri Lanka
North American cultures
Dorset people
Poverty Point people
African cultures
Nubian culture --> significant changes between 1000-500 BCE
role of hard-iron technology
diffusion of Bantu languages
Saba (state)
Blogging Prompts and Critical Questions
Chapter 5:
What are the key questions around which Armesto frames Chapter Five? Why does he think it is important to address these questions (see p. 122)?
How did the Phoenicians influence the settlement, growth, and culture of the Mediterranean region?
How does the Assyrian Empire fit into the Conrad-Demarest model?
What long-term effects did the rivalry between the Assyrians and Babylonians have in the Fertile Crescent region?
How did Greece's geographic situation in the Mediterranean shape its internal development and colonization throughout the region?
How have recent reinterpretations changed the way in which we understand and evaluate Greek culture?
Why does Armesto consider an understanding of the Thracians, Illyrians, Garamantes, Etruscans, and others vital to the history of the Mediterranean? How does his revised interpretation, which includes these groups, differ from other histories of Western Civilization?
How does the Zhou Dynasty fit Conrad-Demarest's model of empire?
How are the developments in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia) during the early first millennium BCE distinctively different from those of the Mediterranean, the Americas, or Africa?
What are the two primary model of recovery development in the second millennium BCE that Armesto presents?
Part Two - Chapters 3-5
Chapter 3 (pp. 62-91):
ID Terms and Important Concepts
Blogging Prompts and Critical Questions
Chapter 4 (pp. 92-119):
ID Terms and Important Concepts
Blogging Prompts and Critical Questions
Chapter 5 (pp. 120-151):
ID Terms and Important Concepts
Blogging Prompts and Critical Questions
Chapter 5:
Related links and resources
Potential assignment breakdown
Chapter 3:
Chapter 4:
Chapter 5: